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Prator: Bah, I've tried it, and could get past the opening fight sequence. Even with the graphics turned down as low as possible, the lag is intolerable... Well, at least I tried.

Note that the demo is based on the original, unpatched release. Subsequent patches have reportedly resulted in noticeably increased performance, especially in regards to load times, as well as improving the graphics and localisation.
Post edited August 06, 2009 by Arkose
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Prator: Bah, I've tried it, and could get past the opening fight sequence. Even with the graphics turned down as low as possible, the lag is intolerable... Well, at least I tried.

Well, your GPU is crap (no offense, I have HD3650 AGP, but it's crap too :p) so first I recommend getting a dedicated GPU and then thinking about playing such demanding games.
Or you could always play WoW. :p
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Prator: Bah, I've tried it, and could get past the opening fight sequence. Even with the graphics turned down as low as possible, the lag is intolerable... Well, at least I tried.

The Witcher definitely hits graphics cards pretty hard, so you're definitely making the right call passing at least until you get a hardware upgrade. However, if you do get better hardware in the future you should definitely pick up a copy of this game, as I'd consider it one of the best RPGs to be released in recent years.
The Witcher isn't that demanding, but there is still a basic level to meet. Surprisingly, it gave me more than decent performances on my aging X800XL.
The camera style you pick has a large impact on how the game runs as well. When I first tried the demo, my computer was unable to handle the over the shoulder perspective, however with the isometric style, it ran fairly well. You probably tried this already, but just a thought...
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Prator: The Witcher: Enhanced Edition has been released on Steam, and for the next few days it's 30% off. I'm trying to decide whether or not I should go for this.
My concern is twofold:
1. The Witcher is known for its "mature content." I'm not an enormous fan of gratuitous sex or especially bloody violence, and do not consider those things "perks" in a game. Then again, I am a fan of good stories and good RPG gameplay, and if those are present in enough force, then I'm willing to ignore or forgive a lot of things.
2. My computer has a video card that was never intended for gaming, one of those Embedded Intel Chipsets. It's not actually a bad videocard, and I CAN play *some* graphically advanced games with it (Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Jade Empire, Halo 2)... but there's lag, even at the lowest settings. There's always lag, and the lag gets magnified with each additional moving figure or special effect on the screen. At a glance, it doesn't look like The Witcher is much more than my computer is capable of handling, especially if I don't have to worry about a disk, but I wish I knew how bad the lag would be, and if it would severely hamper my gameplay experience...

This is one of the best RPGs I ever played, specially because they took their time working on atmosphere. It's very faithful to the books too.
I know the questions were already largely taken care of but...
2. This game actually demands some from the graphics card. This game's combat system can be very frustrating with any lag, because you're supposed to mouse-click on the exact time to trigger a combination of blows.
Note about the demo: this game's intro chapter's got to be the stupidest beginning of any game ever released. You just run around chasing enemies that take turns being the easiest to hit and kill. If you didn't tune your preferences, it might be even worse, because the game easily lags if your computer is not prepared to the default settings. So if the demo plays the actual beginning of the game... remember there's a little more to it than that. The dialogs, characters and places are mostly cool.
Post edited August 07, 2009 by RafaelLopez
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RafaelLopez: The dialogs, characters and places are mostly cool.

Yes, yes and yes. I love this game. By the way, do you only get to pick impactful choices if you're playing normal or above? I tried it once on Easy, and wasn't sure if I had missed the chance to impact the story or if I was looking for it earlier than I was suppossed to.
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RafaelLopez: The dialogs, characters and places are mostly cool.
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TheCheese33: Yes, yes and yes. I love this game. By the way, do you only get to pick impactful choices if you're playing normal or above? I tried it once on Easy, and wasn't sure if I had missed the chance to impact the story or if I was looking for it earlier than I was suppossed to.

I don't really see any reason why different difficulties would impact choice. Mostly it's just more enemies, smarter enemies, and as far as I recall, it's the same here.
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RafaelLopez: The dialogs, characters and places are mostly cool.
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TheCheese33: Yes, yes and yes. I love this game. By the way, do you only get to pick impactful choices if you're playing normal or above? I tried it once on Easy, and wasn't sure if I had missed the chance to impact the story or if I was looking for it earlier than I was suppossed to.

I don't know, I only played it on the harder setting, but as far as I know the story is the same, and your actions aren't too impactful either way. Only thing of note is that you "take sides" from a point on, which changes the way some NPCs treat you, and the chicks you can get laid with.
You guys might have noticed, the enhanced release has additional adventures, which are considerable HARDER than the original campaign.
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TheCheese33: Yes, yes and yes. I love this game. By the way, do you only get to pick impactful choices if you're playing normal or above? I tried it once on Easy, and wasn't sure if I had missed the chance to impact the story or if I was looking for it earlier than I was suppossed to.

Difficulty only affects combat. The choices you make through the game do make a difference in terms of the challenges you face, but the end goal remains largely unchanged. It's more a matter of how you get there. I'd still recommend playing on a higher difficulty even if only to play around with the alchemical opportunities the game has. It certainly adds another dimension to the game and was one of the things I also liked about Morrowind.
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RafaelLopez: I don't know, I only played it on the harder setting, but as far as I know the story is the same, and your actions aren't too impactful either way. Only thing of note is that you "take sides" from a point on, which changes the way some NPCs treat you, and the chicks you can get laid with.
You guys might have noticed, the enhanced release has additional adventures, which are considerable HARDER than the original campaign.

You don't actually have to take sides. If you decide, in Act 4, to walk away then you're considered neutral.
Post edited August 07, 2009 by Navagon
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Navagon: You don't actually have to take sides. If you decide, in Act 4, to walk away then you're considered neutral.

With which you get both.... ah, let's not spoil the fun of those still playing the game.
Yeah, but taking sides is the most impactful you'll ever get in the game.
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Prator: Bah, I've tried it, and couldn't get past the opening fight sequence. Even with the graphics turned down as low as possible, the lag is intolerable... Well, at least I tried.

If you like serious and deep RPGs, the PC is still the best place to play them... you should be able to get a cheap video card that could run the game on medium for under $80.
Best game of 2007 and 2008.